Trey Williams

BRISTOL — Science Hill’s Mikey White and David Crockett’s Flavio Sanguinetti unofficially kicked off the football season in impressive fashion Thursday in the Big Seven Conference jamboree at the Stone Castle.

White, an athletic 6-foot-2 senior, ran for a 46-yard touchdown and intercepted a Hail Mary pass around the 10-yard line on the game’s final play to preserve the Hilltoppers’ 21-14 one-quarter victory against Dobyns-Bennett.

Sanguinetti, a junior, kicked a 41-yard field goal with 2:04 left and the Pioneers held on for a 3-0 win against Daniel Boone.

After holding D-B on the glorified scrimmage’s opening drive, Science Hill was facing first-and-15 from inside the 5 on its opening possession.

But White caught a 30-yard pass from Malik McGue on third-and-9 – to the Science Hill 42 – and the Hilltoppers were off and running. Three plays later, White scored from 46 yards out.

Jacoby Thompson tied the score with a 17-yard TD run through the middle for the Indians with 8:50 left.

Senior quarterback Malik McGue gave Science Hill the lead when he rolled left and connected with Jordan Holly for a 40-yard TD pass with 4:17 left, but D-B answered two minutes later on Makale Foreman’s 29-yard pass from Skylar East.

Junior quarterback Justin Bedard, who played three of Science Hill’s five series, began the Hilltoppers’ game-winning drive with a 21-yard run to the D-B 49. Four plays later, Elijah Mathes made a somewhat difficult twisting catch look easy for a 33-yard touchdown reception with 19.6 seconds remaining.

D-B’s East then completed a 24-yard pass to set up the Hail Mary, which White went up and grabbed in a crowd around the 10-yard line.

“We made some big plays and continued to make big plays,” D-B coach Graham Clark said. “I would’ve loved to have had another minute, you know; that’d been nice. … I liked the way we ran the football and (we) protected pretty good. Jacoby stuck it up in there pretty good.”

Science Hill’s Carter was hardly overwhelmed by his Hilltoppers’ performance, but saw plenty of positives.

“It was a little too entertaining, I guess, for both teams,” Carter said. “We didn’t play Malik a whole lot. I mean, we know what he can do. He made a great throw. He’s just a player. … We had to go 95 yards the first time.

“I thought the blocking was good up front on the run. We’ve got a lot to work on. We know that. It wasn’t one of our best games for sure.”

Crockett and Boone played a liberal portion of reserves in a Musket Bowl that looked like it might fire nothing but blanks.

But Sanguinetti drilled a 41-yard field goal to break the scoreless tie.

“Honestly, I didn’t really think about it, but when I got out there I got a little bit nervous,” Sanguinetti said. “And then all the sudden everything just went away. I knew my friends were there with me and I knew they were gonna support me 100 percent.

“As soon as I felt the touch on the ball when I kicked it, I thought it’d go in. But you never know. The holder was Cole Ricker and the snapper was James Midkiff. If it wasn’t for them, it wouldn’t have went in.”

Sanguinetti is a first-year football player that Jeremy Bosken recruited from the soccer team. He scored seven goals for the Pioneers last season.

“Coach Bosken was bugging me since my junior year and I told him I didn’t want to play, because I don’t look football,” Sanguinetti said. “But I’ve started liking football.”

Crockett was flagged for a delay of game prior to the game-winning kick, but Sanguinetti had plenty of distance.

“Flavio’s come in and doing a real good job for us, as you can see,” Bosken said. “We’ve been really working on the snap, hold and kick, and those guys came out and did a really good job. He’s close to putting (kickoffs) in the end zone. That’s what we’re really working on right now.”

One night after looking good in a scrimmage at Grainger, Crockett quarterback Ryan Burger and running back T.K. Hill didn’t play in the jamboree. Nor did numerous other Pioneers.

Ricker made some plays when it mattered. He completed an 18-yard pass to Tom Merriman to the Boone 27 on the game-winning drive.

Ricker also had a 12-yard scramble to get Crockett some breathing room midway through the quarter after Boone turned it over on downs inside the Crockett 10.

“It was good to see Cole Ricker complete some passes and carrying out some fakes, handling a bad snap and little things like that,” Bosken said. “I think the start of the game kind of scared the offense a little bit and the defense got a little jittery. They gave up a big play. But it was good to see some sophomore linebackers in there with their backs against the wall … and really stepping up big with a stand.”

Zach White had several big gains on rushing attempts for Daniel Boone.

Crockett’s Midkiff delivered a big hit on Tristan McKnight, only to have Boone linebacker Jacob Noe return the favor when Midkiff carried on Crockett’s ensuing series.

Tennessee High played the first and fourth quarters. The Vikings beat Sullivan Central 14-0 and defeated Volunteer 21-6.